KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The night prosecutors say Black Kansas City teen Ralph Yarl was shot by white homeowner Andrew Lester, 84, Jodi was watching TV. Then, she heard banging at her front door, her handle rattling and a voice crying out, “I need help.”
Jodi — who requested her last name not be used — was overcome with shock and fear, but she jumped up and dialed 911.
Panicking, she asked the dispatcher what she should do but said she was told not to open the door. “There is an active shooter in the area,” Jodi said she was told.
But when she saw Yarl, 16, collapse at the end of her driveway and other neighbors rush over with flashlights, she and her son joined the first-aid efforts. There were about four neighbors who circled around Yarl, she said. One, living on the street behind the shooting, leapt over his fence to assist the injured teen, she said.
When Jodi asked Yarl what happened, he told her he was supposed to pick up his younger brothers from a friend’s house when he came under fire.
“A man came to the door with a gun and shot me in the head,” she recalled him telling her.
She stood in her driveway Tuesday afternoon and brushed tears off her face as she remembered what took place that evening. Everything would be OK, she told him, even though she wasn’t sure it would be.
Jodi, a health care professional, sent her son inside to grab towels and then placed one under Yarl’s head to slow the bleeding.
“He was very alert,” she said. “He’s such a brave young man.”
The neighbors talked with Yarl about his activities at Staley High School — track and band — before paramedics came to help.
“I’ve never seen so many first-responders come so fast,” she said.
According to previous statements from Kansas City police, Yarl was trying to pick up his siblings Thursday evening from a house on the 1100 block of 115th Terrace in the Northland, but he went to a home on 115th Street instead.
Cass County prosecutors say he was shot “within a few seconds” of being seen by Lester, who fired twice and told him, “Don’t come around here.”
Family said the second time Lester shot Yarl was after the teen had already fallen to the ground.
Officers found Lester standing behind a shattered glass door, charging documents indicate.
He now faces charges for first-degree assault and armed criminal action. Lester surrendered to authorities Tuesday, the day after he was charged. He posted his $200,000 bond not long after.
‘You don’t shoot twice’
Clay County prosecutor Todd Thompson told media at a press conference Monday that there was a “racial component” to the case.
The shooting has been the focus of activist groups and protests, one on the street where Yarl was shot.
Jodi watched a crowd march Sunday, saying it was peaceful and “it needed to be done.”
At the protest, Meara Mitchell, a teacher of Yarl’s for several years, called the teen a “stellar human being.”
“He is the utmost example of how you want a young man to carry himself in this world,” she said.
Jodi hopes the justice system will hold the shooter accountable. She never spoke to Lester, who lives a few houses down.
“If it’s a mistake, you don’t shoot twice,” she said.
Celebrities and political leaders, too, have shared their condolences with Yarl’s family. A GoFundMe started by his aunt has already amassed $3 million as of Tuesday afternoon. On Monday, Yarl was able to return home from the hospital.
“He continues to improve. He’s responsive and he’s making good progress,” his father said after his release.
Several of Lester’s neighbors told The Star Tuesday that the neighborhood is fairly quiet. Some said they had seen Lester around a few times but never talked to him — he mostly kept to himself.
Vickie Mahterian, 76, who lives on the street behind Lester’s home, said she and other neighbors were horrified by the shooting.
“He was an individual who does not represent us,” she said.
Lester’s home was the focal point of the street Tuesday afternoon, with news vans parked nearby to video its spray-painted siding and garage door windows covered with newspapers from the inside.
Those who helped Yarl are rejoicing that the teen seems to be on the mend.
“Miracles do happen,” Jodi said.
“He has a long road ahead. However, we are very thankful that he is still here with us,” a family member wrote in an update on the GoFundMe page. “I’ve been taking the time to read the emails and comments to Ralph. It warms our hearts to see him smile at all the kind words.”
